By |July 14, 2015

In a marathon meeting last night, Missouri’s Ferguson Commission approved almost 100 “calls to action” that will be part of a report sent to Gov. Jay Nixon when the commission's work is finished in September, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Among the measures backed by the commission were recommendations for municipal court reform. Ones aid that the Missouri Supreme Court should supervise local courts, and that they be consolidated to “an appropriate number.” The recommendations came after Nixon signed a bill that further capped the amount of traffic fine revenue municipalities can take in as a share of their budgets. That bill also sets higher standards for accreditation of police departments.

“We also gather this week with recognition of the successes that have been made,” said the Rev. Starsky Wilson, commission co-chairman. “The bill is an important step in addressing the systemic injustices that have occurred in our municipal courts.” The commission's “calls to action” were divided into five categories: racial equity and reconciliation; citizen-law enforcement relations; municipal courts and governance; child well-being and education equity; and economic inequity and opportunity. From here, the commission will decide which of the 100 calls to action, as well as some previously approved, will be presented to the governor as “signature priorities.” To make the cut, commissioners will decide which are the most “transformative, urgent and unflinching.”

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